Roberto Clemente mural painted over in Azalea Park

Within a block of each other, in a residential neighborhood of East Orange County's Azalea Park, there are Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist and Pentecostal churches. The developer set aside land for these churches, back when Azalea Park was a white, working class neighborhood. Today, those churches reflect the changing demographics of the neighborhood. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel)

Carolina Salazar and David Damron, Orlando Sentinel

A mural honoring Puerto Rican baseball icon Roberto Clemente has been painted over, destroying what was a source of pride for Little Leaguers and parents at a rebounding Azalea Park Elementary School ball field.

Earl Lugo has coached there and wanted youngsters from his working-class neighborhood to know the Hall of Famer who died in a 1972 plane crash while delivering aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. Lugo sponsored a childhood friend and noted New York City muralist to craft the mural in 2011.

On Wednesday morning, it was painted over. The school's principal, Kelly Maldonado, filed a vandalism report Wednesday afternoon with the Orlando Police Department.

"Our kids, they go to fancy parks to play in the city, but we've got this mural," said Lugo, choking up with emotion. "It would make us stand out. It would make us proud."

Some had speculated that a disgruntled sponsor covered up the mural. But Todd Adams, an official at Quinco Baseball Academy, which has helped revive the field in return for the use of it, said the academy is just as outraged.

Adams said Quinco ads were painted over recently, too. He speculated that the mural may have been the victim of an internal Little League board dispute or confusion over what was allowed to appear on the walls and dugouts of the park.

"Absolutely not," Adams said when asked whether his company painted over the mural. "We're upset about it, too. Some wires may have been crossed."

Adams said he talked to his own paint crews Wednesday to confirm they were not involved.

But the Azalea Park Little League Board was not convinced and voted Wednesday night to ban Quinco and anyone affiliated with the academy from the field. The board also learned that police are investigating after someone filed a complaint earlier in the day.

An area resident who was dropping off his children at the school saw two men painting over the mural and alerted a group that manages the park with volunteers.

"I thought it was a joke," said Alex Diaz, whose children play there. "But when I returned from dropping off my children, it was obvious that they were doing something bad."

The Orange County school district owns the field but not the concession stand that the mural was painted on. A school spokeswoman said the district had not ordered any paint crews to paint over ads or the mural and would not because the district does not maintain the fields.

When Lugo recruited a childhood friend — professional graffiti artist Hector "Nicer" Nazario — to paint the large-scale, red-and-black mural, the community rallied around the project. Nazario has been a leading figure in the Bronx-based mural group known as TATS CRU, whose graffiti art has evolved through the years into notable commercial and community work.

To many Hispanics, Clemente was their version of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke baseball's color barrier for blacks. Clemente suffered similar discriminatory treatment, especially early on, but succeeded so well on the field as a Pittsburgh Pirate that he became the first Latin American-born inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

For Puerto Ricans in the Azalea Park neighborhood, Clemente was a heroic historic figure.

"Everyone talked about this mural all the time, because it has been part of our history," Diaz said.